China is the "best possible partner" for Serbia to achieve its national goals, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview prior to Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to the country.
In the exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Belgrade on Tuesday, Vucic praised Xi as a humble man who keeps his word.
"We are doing a lot of preparations. We have many dreams. When you run the country you have big aims, high dreams. You need to put your new targets always. And if we can reach these new aims, new targets, new goals, the best possible partner for that has always been, and it will always be, People's Republic of China. And it's President Xi, because President Xi, he keeps his words. I see him as just a regular, humble, modest man, but which is not promising a lot, but when he promises something, then he fulfills that. I cannot tell you whether we had bigger preparations in our railroad sector or overall infrastructural sector or industrial sector, economy sector or tourism sector, whichever sector, or cultural sector, because there are thousands of things that we can and we should learn from our Chinese friends," he said.
Vucic said Serbia's preparations for Xi's visit would help ensure its success and deliver benefits to both nations.
"Let me say it's a big visit and now we are going to be, after today, we are going to be fully devoted to that visit, and I believe that we'll be able to deliver the very best results for the benefit and for the sake of Chinese people and Serbian people as well," he said.
The president also hailed the positive effects on bilateral trade between the two countries since a free trade agreement was signed in Oct 2023, making Serbia China's 29th global free trade partner.
"And there is one very important thing. The free trade agreement that we signed in Beijing. That's a big deal for us, because now we have reached 6.1 billion (U.S. dollars of) overall trade exchange between our two countries. And I believe that we're going to double or triple within 10 years, or even more than that, with this free trade agreement, this is very possible and I believe this will open new doors, new gates for better cooperation even in the future," he said.
Bilateral trade between China and Serbia soared from 596 million U.S. dollars in 2016 to 4.35 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In 2022, China became the largest source of direct investment for Serbia.
China best partner for Serbia to achieve national goals: Serbian president
